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Twist Collective Blog

Five Questions with Christa Giles

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Published on Monday, 12 August 2013 03:25

Welcome to the second installment of our five question interview series to celebrate Twist Collective's fifth birthday!! You can sing to us if you like, or just check out the whole series here. Christa Giles has published nine lovely patterns with us. **Please note that Chista's website is under construction at the moment, but will be shiny and new soon, so bookmark it and take a look another time.

This started at an early age - I still have my sketchbooks of the "ladies" (as Mom called them) in various fashion outfits that I would continually draw as a child. Sometimes the idea of the garment or accessory comes first, but often I'll have just a small design element in mind, and everything else gets filled in around it.

2. What's your favorite design you did for Twist Collective and why?

Boundless - I designed the prototype on the needles, and after starting with an incredibly plain (but well-fitting) hood, it demanded to become this intricate cabled extravaganza! I love seeing all of the finished projects on Ravelry, too - there are some gorgeous, imaginative photo shoots that really boost my feeling of being a real designer, with all of these great models wearing my designs!

3. What was your biggest knitting/crocheting/designing disaster?

Ha, that would be the last three months, in which I designed three complex things (one just by working remotely with a sample knitter) while also helping to organize and present a four-day international circus festival, teach a bunch of teens to be lifeguards, and move houses... all while also working my three regular jobs. The tech editing staff have been incredibly patient with me and all of my glitches, and I'm so grateful!

4. Tell us about a job you've had in the past that would amuse or surprise people who don't know you.

I was invited by a partner's ex-girlfriend to be the photographer's assistant at an erotic photo shoot she was doing with her roommate. My initial job description was "the person who would apply the duct tape to the model". It was awkward for the first few minutes, then the erotic content faded into the background as the photographer started working on the styling of each shot and I learned to -see- things (body creases, bad shadows, etc) that got in the way of good photos.

5. Finish this sentence: If everyone knew how to knit...

There would be even more amazing handknits out in the world (... and world peace)!